Monthly Archives: October 2016

Aging Game

by Woodsbum

So many discussions surround the processing of game. Many people swear by aging meat for 7 – 10 days while others tell you that you have to get the meat to the freezer ASAP. Which one is right? What else should I know about processing my game?

A friend's deer

A friend’s deer

I ran across this great article about processing game from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. It talks about aging times and the process needed to make sure your meat is taken care of properly.

Some of the points you should remember are that all aging should be done under refrigeration. This means that anyone not living in a place where the daily temperatures stay below 40 degrees should look at getting themselves a game refrigerator. The same one I use as my kegerator is the same one I use to age my meat. I have a shelf above my kegs that I store my game on, then cut, clean and wrap it when the time is right. In checking my local Craigslist I am looking at about 30 that all cost less than $100 and would work fine out in a shed or garage for this purpose.

Also, keep in mind that the meat will dry out if you are not careful. I like to put the quarters on a metal rack and big cookie sheet to allow for blood drainage and then cover the whole thing in a large garbage bag. This allows me the ability to “hang” it while keeping it 100 covered and moist so as not to lose meat to drying out. The only processing I do before I start aging consists of skinning, quartering, and cutting out any bloodshot areas.

When I actually process my game, I run it under water and squeeze out any additional blood that might be in the meat. This might take away the “flavor” some people like, but I prefer a less “gamey” flavor, as does my wife who won’t eat it if it takes “funny.” It also give me the opportunity to ensure that the meat is actually 100% clean as well. Although any number of people you talk to will result that that many different ways to do something, I suggest you keep your game as clean as possible before wrapping. It lasts longer in the freezer without adopting crazy flavors or odors.

In conclusion, I suggest you at least read the article and check out the aging information. You might find a few things that you were unaware of that help to make your next harvest all the more tasty.

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Kia Spectra Engine Rebuild

by Woodsbum

These last two weeks have been busy as all get out……

Since I purchased my new truck, due to my old 4×4 blowing an engine and the S&J Motor I picked up being a piece of shit, I have been trying to get my wife’s 2005 Kia Spectra sold. We cleaned it up and took it down to get the oil changed when suddenly it went into a “Safe Mode” operation. Upon investigation I realized that I had one cylinder running at about 20 psi compression. After freaking out and saying a variety of curse words in a multitude of languages, I set out to rip it apart with dreams of a fix. Here are the heads after disassembly.

Kia Heads

Kia Heads

You can see the third set of valves are a bit burned. Luckily, they were more coated with crap than any real damage having been done.

Crapped out valves

Crapped out valves

As you can see, the valves were not that bad. I went ahead and replaced all four of them for this cylinder, though. It was only $50 to replace them and I had to pull everything when I lapping anyway. Swapping to cleaner and new valves saved me some work. Everything lapped well and ended up coming out very nice.

The pistons definitely needed some love, however.

Kia pistons

Kia pistons

You can see where the piston hit the valves when the timing belt went a few months ago. It did much more damage than I had thought. There were actually some chunks of metal just floating around in the chamber. That really isn’t a good thing for those that didn’t know.

Chewed up piston

Chewed up piston

Once I got the pistons out I noticed that this one actually was all gunked up to the point where the rings didn’t even move. No wonder I had almost no compression in this cylinder. Pressing out the wrist pins and putting the new pistons on the connecting rods was a bit of a pain. It took about 5 hours to make the support, press the pins and install the new pins. Even worse was the fact that I had to do it all over at a friend’s house because I don’t have a press…..  yet.

As of last night, the pistons and rings are all installed into the block and the connecting rod caps are all torqued. My son is going to finish buttoning everything back up and putting the heads back on. If all goes well I should have this guy back up and running by either tonight or tomorrow so I can get it to the new buyer. That should be nice. We will be back down to 5 cars (my two trucks, wife’s Subaru, and my son’s two VW’s), a boat and my flat bed trailer all shoehorned around the trees at my house. Hell, I should even be able to get the heads of my old 4×4, rebuild them, and get it running pretty soon. Then I can get my motorcycles going and start on more enjoyable projects like building pipes, kuksas, and spoons.

Keep your fingers crossed that all these mechanical problems we have dealt with lately will be remedied soon. I am getting tired of broken down vehicles all over the place.

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SHTF School Blog Entry

by Woodsbum

Although I spend a lot of time reading about woodsman related subjects, I do include a lot of the SHTF and prepper sources. Some of these sources actually touch upon more than just the “survival” aspect of woodsmanship. Many really push old school skills and natural remedies. The amount of knowledge that these corporate “survivalists” push out there is truly amazing and can be adapted to many different situations.

This article that I ran across really struck me as more than just a doomsday rant. It showed the parallels between the USA and what took place in the Balkans. For those of you who do not do much research beyond new restaurants and what new shows are coming on the TV, this might be a surprise. The Balkans had a very nasty war take place back in the 1990’s. I actually know a few people that lived through this horror and 1 that was lucky enough to get out right before it got bad. This guy Selco, from SHTF School, actually lived through the nastiness and became a “survival expert” due to his experiences. The blog/site is worth a read just to let you know how bad things can get when the infrastructure breaks.

In this article, Selco talks about how the polarization of once unified people really was one of the many indicators of the upcoming violence. He draws some pretty interesting lines between what took place there and what is taking place here in the States. No matter what political leanings you have, this article is really worth a look.

Selco also talks about how the removal of what are commonly considered a right that cannot be taken away, can and will be removed from the general population. Here in the USA we believe that the rights in the Bill of Rights are set in stone. Selco says that the same type rights that they thought were set in stone were taken away by the government in a single day. Since the US has been living a certain lifestyle for so long, he believes that any fall in the US will be very devastating. His perspective is quite the departure from what the US media is pushing down our throats.

It doesn’t matter if you are a prepper, conspiracty theorist, lifelong liberal Democrat or anarchist. Your “label” doesn’t really matter. It would behove you to take the time to read this article just so you can see how an entire nation’s world changed almost overnight and their media sources were covering it up.

Sound familiar?

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Hardtack

by Woodsbum

For those of you who are not sure what hardtack is, think of it like a horribly thick and hard cracker. What is nice is that it will literally last forever. It doesn’t go bad. What I like it for is tossing some hard cheese and meat on it, honey, or use it to dip into a soup. People also eat it as is, but it is a bit bland.

Here is the recipe:

 

  • 3 cups of white flour
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • 1 cup of water

Mix it all together and roll it out into a big square. Cut the dough into about 9 equal portions or just make them about as equal as you can get. Once you get these portioned and cut, use a nail to poke about 14 holes to make it resemble the holes on a saltine cracker.

Bake the pieces on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove them from the sheet and let them cool. They should look like slightly browned, puffy crackers.

Each piece of hardtack is about 150 calories.

 

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Quiver Safety

by Woodsbum

My father is on about every Facebook hunting page/group that exists and ran across this yesterday. He contacted the person that posted it and received permission to use the pictures and information for the bowhunting education classes that we teach. Since we use my site and much of the information on here as a reference during classes I am posting the information here as a quick reference.

From the story told, this lady’s poor husband was stepping on a rock when he slipped and fell down a 6 foot rock ledge. His arrows came out of his quiver and he was impaled in the hand and the leg. The one in the hand was the worst from what I am gathering at this point. Here are a few pictures of the xrays.

Xray

Xray

Xray

Xray

According to his wife, he had to walk out of the woods about a mile and half for her to come pick him up. He did try to pull it out, but luckily it did not dislodge. If it had, he would have probably bled to death. It cut the main vein that goes to the hand.

**********Medical Note************

NEVER pull out an impaled object. Stabilize it and transport the person/yourself as is. Many times your body will contract or close around these type objects so when you pull them out there is a distinct possibility of causing more harm.

**********End Note***************

This is what the poor wife had to see when she picked him up.

Ride Home

Ride Home

He did quite a bit of damage to his hand. The main vein to his hand was cut, he severed 2 tendons, and got some nerves. As you can see from the xrays, he got pretty lucky. The radial artery is right in that area. You can see it a bit better from these pictures at the hospital.

At ER

At ER

Arrow Removed

Arrow Removed

This guy is really lucky that he didn’t do more damage, cut his radial artery, or have to walk out further than he did. Even luckier for him is that his wife has a good sense of humor about the whole thing. She was joking and poking fun at the situation a bit in her post.

Although situations like this are tough and take a while for the wounds to heal there is usually a silver lining to some degree. This guy’s wife allowed us to use this story and pictures to teach others how dangerous hunting can be with improperly fitting equipment. His arrows FELL out of his quiver when he slipped and bounced down the rock embankment. Most people skimp and try to save money on their quivers. This shows how saving money on a quiver really doesn’t save much in the long run. Make sure you have a quiver with at least 2 arrow grippers like the Trophy Ridge Lite-1. I only show you this one because I use it and I couldn’t think of another one offhand that has 2 grippers.

Trophy Ridge Lite-1

Trophy Ridge Lite-1

And for those of you who were paying attention to the xrays, the broadheads he had were Muzzy.

Stay safe out there and keep your gear in good repair. No one wants you to end up tagging yourself instead of that Royal you were stalking for 8 hours.

 

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